This pamphlet provides an overview of the historic role, accomplishments, and challenges which face historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as they carry out their unique mission. It summarizes the efforts of the Department of Education aimed at strengthening HBCUs, while assuring that higher education programs do not discriminate on…

Issues in black higher education are examined from both educational and legal standpoints. It is noted that ambivalence toward the black public college has confounded the definition and implementation of desegregation, and that efforts to desegregate public higher education have historically reflected two concerns: the need to overturn legally…